Working in the spirit realm can be one of the most rewarding spiritual experiences you can have. Feeling your connection to spirit or source, and learning to navigate a different reality, over time, combats modern struggles around isolation, depression, anxiety, and fatigue. Doing so safely isn’t hard, as long as you make a few simple tasks part of your regular spirit-connection routine.
This article assumes you already know the basics of shamanic journeying. If that isn’t yet familiar to you, I recommend reading my article on learning to shamanic journey to aid your work.
In Advance
In any spirit work, clearing your space and energy and making sure you’re well-grounded before you begin are important first steps. Clearing your space and energy field doesn’t have to take more than a few minutes and can be done through a number of techniques, including:
- Channeling Reiki or other healing energies
- Smudging with resin (incense) or herbs
- Invoking the energy of the elements
- Visualization
Walking the perimeter of the space you’ll be in as you clear, use your chosen technique and hold the intention that negative or heavy energy is dispersed and replaced with light/love/truth (or something similar). Once your space is clear, clear your personal energy field. Connect with earth energy as you do so (the Tree of Life meditation offers a good visualization for this) for grounding.
Finally, invoke your guides for protection. We can call on our highest guides even without knowing anything about them. Trust in their existence – it’s the first step to spirit work, regardless of who/what you end up connecting with.
Staying Safe
When reaching out for a spirit connection in any medium, it is critical to hold the intention to connect with the highest being for your highest good. There are many spirit allies who might be willing to work with us. We want to make sure we’re connecting with the highest beings available to us.
If you are planning to use shamanic journeying for connection with guide(s) and don’t have a guide to work with, journey first to connect with a guide. Spirit animals are used in some shamanic traditions, notably Core Shamanism, as guides and guardians for shamanic journeying, and can often be easily connected with. Sandra Ingerman’s book Shamanic Journeying, A Beginner’s Guide, and Michael Harner’s The Way of the Shaman both cover beginning journeys to find a spirit animal.
Having a guide specifically for your journeys offers protection and additional discernment when interacting with other spirits and beings in the spirit realm.
Learning to Discern
Discernment about whether an entity is ‘safe’ or serves your highest good is essential and thankfully straightforward. The most important tool is emotion, and the second is bodily awareness – how does interacting with this being make you feel? This is the bottom line. If they don’t make you feel good, or at least connected in a good way, they’re likely not serving your highest good. Connecting with spirit should feel really good.
Further discernment comes from how a being interacts with you. If an entity asks you to do something that goes against any of your principles, you shouldn’t work with them, or you should only do so with protection from higher guides. No loving guide would ask you to do anything that goes against your better nature, or would put you in any kind of harm (directly or indirectly).
Discernment through interaction can be difficult, particularly when a guide is challenging you. For example, I felt considerable trepidation – even fear – when asked to marry Odin. But that fear was mine, and part of the healing work I had before me – not an indication of the safety of the situation. I ended up relying on how I knew Odin made me feel (which I had already experienced as a deep, abiding love) to determine whether marrying him served my highest good.
You never have to interact with or follow directives from any being you don’t wish to work with. And if an entity doesn’t respect your free will, they are not working for your highest good.
Finally, the question of discerning what’s coming from you versus what’s coming from outside of you is a big one for most of us. This takes time, and the practice of quieting your mind will serve you well here. One technique is to focus on your heart and third-eye chakras, and quiet everything else. Another is to focus outside yourself – taking in what’s going on around you through your senses. I discuss this in more depth in my article on shamanic journeying.
Returning Well
Coming back from spirit connection, especially in a shamanic journey or deep meditation, without feeling spacey or disconnected from physical reality requires some grounding when you’re finished with your work.
You can repeat the grounding exercise (taking in earth energy) used in preparation for your work. Food is also very grounding; anything grown from/in the ground works well (as does dark chocolate), although any food consumed mindfully can work. Be sure to hydrate, and if possible, take notes from your encounter for later reflection.
With a little time and attention, spirit connection can be done safely, and, most importantly, joyfully. It takes time, patience, and ritual, but when done with love, and spirit reaches back, the changes to our lives are beyond comparison.
Header image by John Silliman on Unsplash
Feather image by Daniel Olah on Unsplash
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